


The Light of the Dining Hall

by LuigiThirty



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Gen, No Angst, No Spoilers, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23021533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuigiThirty/pseuds/LuigiThirty
Summary: Bernadetta von Varley is being very sneaky. Why?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	The Light of the Dining Hall

Bernadetta von Varley crept through the halls of Garreg Mach Monastery. It was nearly midnight, well after lights-out for the students on a cool autumn night. For someone who enjoys solitude, nighttime is the perfect time in a place like this. Nobody is around except the monastery’s night watchmen and the rare monk on their way to nighttime prayer.

With a leather satchel in her arms, Bernie advanced toward the dining hall. It was kept unlocked at night for those monks and night watchmen who get hungry during the night, but on a Saturday night it was rarely in use. Her heart pounding, she passed between two hedges, just missing one of the guards. The punishment for being out after lights-out was merely being escorted back to the dorms and getting a good talking-to from the stern professor in the morning. For someone with Bernie’s disposition this was as good as a death sentence.

She made it to the dining hall. Bernie pancaked herself against one of its thick stone walls, surprised at how warm it was even this late at night. Messy lavender hair appeared in the window above, then Bernie’s eyes. She scanned the dining hall for anyone who might be inside. Seeing nobody in the shadows of the few lit torches, she skittered to the unlatched wooden door and pushed it open. It made the loudest creaking noises she’d ever heard. Bernie rushed inside and shut the door behind her.

She stopped dead, but after a good twenty or thirty seconds she could still only hear the sound of her own breathing. Satisfied, she crouch-walked toward the kitchen area.

The kitchen had been cleaned up, pots and pans arranged on the racks and cabinets, the oven and stovetops pristine. Bernie dropped her leather satchel on the ground with a thump. She opened it up, removing several bags of carefully measured ingredients. She grabbed a silver bowl and… stopped.

Bernie liked cooking. The problem was that doing it made her feel almost as anxious as interacting with other people. The solution, she figured, was to do it when nobody would be around.

Did she have the right ingredients? Did she know the recipe? What if she screwed it up? What if it was all a waste of time? What if it came out disgusting? What if she burned down the monastery? What if… what if…

Bernie sat on the floor, breathing heavily.

She needed to calm herself down before she continued.

She closed her eyes and waited.

The feelings passed.

She mixed up pancake batter in the silver bowl. Using a low-level fire spell, she lit the stove, adding some butter to the pan. Then, the fateful moment arrived. Bernie added the batter to the pan.

Nothing burst into flames.

Nothing exploded.

Nobody chopped her head off.

Bernie let out a heavy sigh of relief and, for the first time in a while, smiled. She was so proud of herself to get this far, and a few minutes later, she’d done it.

Bernadetta von Varley had made a pancake. Nobody had seen her. Nobody would ever know what she’d done. She liked it that way. For her, this was still one step closer to feeling like she wasn’t a permanent screw-up. There was hope.

**Author's Note:**

> I really feel like I understand her. I want to express how it felt for me, back when I was a similar way as Bernadetta, to do something as simple as cooking. I think I can better understand my feelings then and now processing them this way, through my favorite characters and their trials.


End file.
